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was bought at Tenby for 7{d. the stone of 14 lbs., giving a rate of 5s. per cwt. Lead was bought at the same time and place for a little less than 9d. a stone, or about 5s. 11d. the cwt.; other iron, perhaps of a finer kind, cost 10d. a stone, or 6s. 8d. per cwt. About five cartload of timber brought from Caermarthenshire cost lls. 8d. delivered at Porthclais; and 3s. 2d. was paid

pro 6 burdis longis.” Of manufactured articles, 8d. was paid for a hatchet, 2d. for a pair of buckets, 4d. for a mason's sieve, 13d. for twenty-seven great door-nails, and 4d. for sixteen smaller door-nails (besides 2d. “ in beveragio”), 15s. for seven strong locks and keys, 16d.

pro 2 novis seris cum clavibus,” and 4d. “pro duobus anulis novis cum clappis ad p'dicta ostia.'

Two short extracts will throw some light on the moral condition of the country, and the necessities imposed on an architect by the want of an efficient police :

“ 11. Syglo pro factura clavorum et emandaõe serarum fractarũ Ecctæ per latrones 16d.

“ It 2 cementariis obstruentibus div'sas fenestras Ecctæ propter pericula latronű, et div'sa ostia, viz: in alis Eccta."

The surnames or soubriquets of the labourers and artificers employed affords a valuable study to those who take interest in the derivation and history of family names. It is well known that hereditary surnames were at that period nearly confined to the upper classes in England; in Wales they hardly existed at all, and are by no means universal among the lower orders at the present day. It may be supposed therefore that a strange jumble of names would be found at St. David's, situated as it was on the confines of an English district, and from various causes attracting sojourners from various parts of the kingdom. The majority belong to the common Welsh class of patronymics. Of these are Walter ap David, Gitto ap David Thomas, Ellis Arthur,-or, as he is called,

Alys Arthurus, William ap Eynon, John Harold, Rys ap William, Robert ap Morgan, Robyn ap Moris, William Stevene, or William Stephani, Jevan ap Owen, David ap

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. V.

I

a mason.

Rhydderch, John Arthur, David ap Meredith, Robin ap

, Walter, and Jenkyn Oweyn. The following names are derived from personal qualities :-David Loyd, Jevyn bach (who, from the amount of his wages, must have been a boy), and David bach (who, from the amount of his wages, was as big as he was ever meant to be). To these I should have added without hesitation the name of Philip Goch, were it not that Goch appears twice as a Christian name, or as the corruption of one; we meet with a Goch Meridith, and a Goch Delyn, the latter of whom would seem to have combined the profession of music with arts more laborious and less liberal. The following persons derived their names from their occupations :-Henry Smyth, and David Faber de Wyston, were blacksmiths, and William Sayrer, probably for Saer,

A glazier bore the high-sounding appellation of Christianus Glaziarius, a locksmith the familiar denomination of Jak Lokyer. A carpenter, as we have seen, rejoiced in the expressive title of Jak Hakker, which was all very well in English, but became a little grotesque when the accountant was constrained by the tyrannical laws of syntax to put it into a Latin dative, and reduced to the disagreeable alternative of writing Johanni Hakker, or Jak Hakkero. To these must be added of course the never-to-be-forgotten name of Magister Johannes Carpentarius. I am uncertain whether the names of Jak

I Skynner, Robin Hoper, and John Coke alias Jak Cocus alias Jevyn Cokus, are to be regarded as instances of hereditary surnames, or of an imperfect division of labour. The following seem to be derived from their places of abode, Philip Rosse, Howel Porth, William Kyldy, and Buelth. John Rowe, Robert Caxon, and Reydner Soket would seem to have migrated from the Englishry in search of work, and Roger Seys was evidently a native of that district, or of England. I can make nothing of David Bole, David Yryst, Thomas Draws, Llewelyn Sygl, David Kyogyn, Jen Degan, Robert Sydes, Walter Sudys, William Rugs, Wylliam Selone, and William ap Philip Vawrer. The head mason John Makmourch, seems, both

from his name, and from the difficulty which the accountant had in spelling it, to have been a Scot or an Irishman.

I trust you will pardon this somewhat prolix roll-call of names. I am sure you would do so, if you felt, as I do,

, that there is something peculiarly affecting in the existence of this simple record of humble men, who lived and laboured nearly five centuries ago. The names of the princes, the prelates, the warriors and the sages of the period are as household words in our mouths; while those of fifty of our fellow men, no whit less important in their way, but for the pious care of a copyist, would have been hidden to the end of time. There is no memorial to mark their resting-place. Mr. John the Carpenter has not so much as a rudely sculptured saw to tell where he lies. The dust of Christian the Glazier is gone —no man knows where; while that of Archdeacon Morgan ap Eynon, who bargained with him for the reparation of the great south window (itself now destroyed), reposes beneath the pew now assigned to the Canons' Ladies! While the nobles of England were contending with the King, the Commons, and each other, ---while the rival claims of Urban and Clement, of Rome and Avignon, were agitating the peace of the Church and the politics of Europe,-just ten years after Petrarch had breathed his last sigh to the shade of Laura, and exactly five before Bajazet, surnamed Ilderim, flashed upon the Eastern world like the terrible meteor whose name he bore,Jack Hacker and his compeers, regardless alike of Pope and Antipope, of King and Kaisar, were plying their daily tasks in the valley of St. David's, beneath the government, or misgovernment, of the time. They may have been pinched by the poll-tax of King Richard, they may have sympathized in secret with Wat the Tyler, they may have imbibed the doctrines of the priest of Kent, or recited the revolutionary doggrels of his disciples : they may have felt the last political vibrations of the blow struck by the mace of Walworth. But they had not to do with kings or princes; and if they ever looked a monarch in the face, it was when, fifteen years later, they thronged to Milford to stare at the ill-fated Richard on his return from Ireland, -even as the people of St. David's, three centuries afterwards, gazed with awe upon the armament of William of Orange, or as many who are now present, a few years since, welcomed the peaceful progress of Queen Victoria.

W. BASIL JONES.

OUR LADY'S MILL, AND THE DEMOLISHED CHAPEL

OF ST. MARY, ABERYSTWYTH. By a document dated 25th May, 16 Elizabeth, being the record of a verdict in a cause tried at Hereford, in which the Queen's Attorney-General on behalf of the Crown was plaintiff

, and the inhabitants of Aberystwyth were defendants, in an action respecting the title to a mill at Aberystwyth called “Our Lady's Mill,” it appears the right in the said mill was established in the Crown.

By letters patent dated the 10th July, 27 Elizabeth, being a grant from the Crown of the aforesaid mill for forty years to Richard Pryse, the son of John Pryse, Esquire, deceased, on condition of performing service in the chapel of Aberystwyth, and under 60s. rent, with suit of mill, &c.

Indentures of the 1st March, 11 James I., between Francis Morris, of the city of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, and Francis Phillips, of London, gentleman, of the one part, and Sir Richard Pryse, of Gogerddan, in the county of Cardigan, Knight, of the other part, being the purchase of the aforesaid mill called “Our Lady's Mill,” in fee, subject to a rent of 60s. payable to the crown.

Michaelmas Term, 16 George II. Thomas Pryse, of Gogerddan, Esquire, John Morris, of Aberystwyth, miller,— Complainants;

And John Evans, inn-keeper, Lewis Matthias, Jennet

Davies, Rd. Parry, Lewis Evans, David Evans, William James, Robert Evans, Morgan Jones, Mary Williams, Frances Williams, Thomas Taylor, Samuel Davies, Thomas Parry, Alexander Gordon, alderman, John Evans, Esquire, the present mayor thereof, Roderic Richards, glover, and Evan Edwards,- Defendants.

The bill in the cause states that Thomas Pryse and his ancestors had time out of mind been seised by grant from the Crown of one water corn grist mill, situate in the town of Aberystwyth, called “Our Lady's Mill,” at a certain yearly rent of £3. payable at the receipt of his Majesty's audit.

That from time immemorial the inhabitants of the town of Aberystwyth, and the liberties and precincts thereof, have by ancient custom ground all sorts of corn and grain used and consumed therein at such mill, paying one-sixteenth dish for the toll.

That the said inhabitants were, by the said custom, obliged to bring or send their said corn and grain, so to be consumed and used, to the said mill, and to no other mill whatsoever, paying such toll.

That such inhabitants have not, from time immemorial, ever had a right to grind at any other mill, or to set up or erect any mill for their own use, which mill the complainant and his tenant were by such custom bound to keep in repair.

The answer of the defendants admits the seisin in Mr. Pryse, but whether it descended to him under grant from the Crown, they put in issue; they deny the custom as alleged, or any such custom, to have ever existed, and claim the right of grinding their corn at their own option.

The only papers in the cause are the bill and answer; what became of the suit does not appear, but the mill has continued in possession of the Pryse family ever since. Their title commences by the lease for forty years from Queen Elizabeth, on condition of performing service in the chapel of Aberystwyth, (that is) providing for the same, and is completed by the subsequent purchase of